Research

Hormonal

Marked subclinical hypothyroidism (TSH > 10 mIU/L) is significantly associated with increased odds of prevalent metabolic syndrome, but this association may be confounded by thyroid hormone replacement therapy use.

For older adults with significantly elevated TSH (>10 mIU/L), there is a higher risk of metabolic syndrome, particularly high triglycerides and low HDL. However, this risk is heavily influenced by whether the patient is taking thyroid medication. If you are not on medication, your risk profile is less clear. Regular monitoring of lipid levels is recommended for this group.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Subclinical hypothyroidism with a TSH > 10 mIU/l was significantly associated with increased odds of prevalent metabolic syndrome (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.0–5.0; P = 0.04)... Excluding thyroid hormone users from the analysis... Marked subclinical hypothyroidism was no longer significantly associated with prevalent MetS (OR 1.58, 95% CI 0.68–3.66, P = 0.28).
Avantika C. Waring et al. · Clinical Endocrinology · 2011

Why this rating

Observational data with a small sample size for the marked subgroup (n=34) and significant confounding by medication use.

Source

Thyroid function and prevalent and incident metabolic syndrome in older adults: the health, ageing and body composition study

Avantika C. Waring et al. · Clinical Endocrinology · 2011

DOI 10.1111/j.1365-2265.2011.04328.x

cohort · n=2119Cited 179×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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